In 2013, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, an organization funded by the Canadian government, awarded $2.5 million to support the foundation of the Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (ICSI).1 ICSI was an outgrowth of the research project known as Improvisation, Community and Social Practice (ICASP), and it upholds the commitment to social justice of its antecedent organization. In the words of executive director Ajay Heble,
The institute is the biggest of its kind, and its utopic take on improvisation studies, in particular its commitment to social engagement and collaborative action, looms large. I mention it here because Gary Peters's Improvising Improvisation is clearly written against it. Combining personal “memoirs” with extended essays on various artistic forms, Peters leverages a wide range of philosophical texts to elaborate a theory of improvisation defined against what he sees as the dominant one in improvisation studies. I should say, however,...
University of California Press